Configure project paths

This documentation refers to configuring the standalone (legacy) APM Server. This method of running APM Server will be deprecated and removed in a future release. Please consider upgrading to Fleet and the APM integration.

The path section of the apm-server.yml config file contains configuration options that define where APM Server looks for its files. For example, APM Server looks for the Elasticsearch template file in the configuration path and writes log files in the logs path.

Please see the Directory layout section for more details.

Here is an example configuration:

path.home: /usr/share/beat
path.config: /etc/beat
path.data: /var/lib/beat
path.logs: /var/log/

Note that it is possible to override these options by using command line flags.

Configuration options

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You can specify the following options in the path section of the apm-server.yml config file:

`home`

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The home path for the APM Server installation. This is the default base path for all other path settings and for miscellaneous files that come with the distribution (for example, the sample dashboards). If not set by a CLI flag or in the configuration file, the default for the home path is the location of the APM Server binary.

Example:

path.home: /usr/share/beats

`config`

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The configuration path for the APM Server installation. This is the default base path for configuration files, including the main YAML configuration file and the Elasticsearch template file. If not set by a CLI flag or in the configuration file, the default for the configuration path is the home path.

Example:

path.config: /usr/share/beats/config

`data`

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The data path for the APM Server installation. This is the default base path for all the files in which APM Server needs to store its data. If not set by a CLI flag or in the configuration file, the default for the data path is a data subdirectory inside the home path.

Example:

path.data: /var/lib/beats

When running multiple APM Server instances on the same host, make sure they each have a distinct path.data value.

`logs`

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The logs path for a APM Server installation. This is the default location for APM Server’s log files. If not set by a CLI flag or in the configuration file, the default for the logs path is a logs subdirectory inside the home path.

Example:

path.logs: /var/log/beats

`system.hostfs`

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Specifies the mount point of the host’s filesystem for use in monitoring a host. This can either be set in the config, or with the --system.hostfs CLI flag. This is used for cgroup self-monitoring.

Example:

system.hostfs: /mount/rootfs

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